Review of Calèche Eau de Toilette by aad de gids

would Calèche be still relevant today ? this is not a question you can simply answer with 'yes' or 'no'. in Elena Vosnaki's brilliant article https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Is-Chanel-No-5-Obsolete-15018.html she asks the same question about Chanel No5. she summed up many arguments or topics related to this question and because Calèche and No5 are comparable, many of what has been spoken of in her article also goes for Calèche. if we compare these ladies with the perfumes launched 'today' they would surely feel ... strange. especially with the Gourmand & Dupes Waves going perpetuously forth. what also became obvious to me after reading Elena's article was that these perfumes may have had their time. they were created with a certain 'Target Group' in mind. the Chanel & Hermès ultrachique 'Ladies who Lunch'. that this was a winged phrase in the 1980s was clear. Nan Kempner, Lynn Wyatt, Diane von Furstenberg, Georgette Mosbacher, Mrs Kissinger, Nancy Reagan, Ivanka Trump, Mrs Gorbatchov. but now we have the Influencers and their Realms of 'Knownness'. if I read reviews for No5 and Calèche, they are often still positive but there is always a little 'Pointe' of Tease in it. as if there is spoken about Old Ladies. and these do not harm anyone, don't they ? sisters of Calèche and No5 are JOY, madame Rochas, Miss Dior, Ivoire de Balmain, Y de Yves Saint Laurent (for women), perhaps Estée's White Linen, Eternity and possible others. they are hugely different but again more comparable to each other than for instance with the 1980s Hooker Perfumes, the Montales, the heady & ultraheady Creed Floral perfumes. they all possess some austerity. I have first smelled No5 and Calèche in 1974, when they were still loaded with civet. but in essence they are Ladylike Chypre perfumes with either Aldehydes, Oakmoss, Civet (or Civetone), a Bouquet of Flowers with Roses, Jasmine, Ylang Ylang & Iris in prominent roles. Elena also had a good point in accentuating the Demographics: the disappearance of those Ultra Glamorous Ladies in the 1980s (and 1950s and 1920s). the specific market of Asia where such as austere as luminous as demure perfumes are rather loved. while we are heading into Rocket Starts, Nationwide Sillages, weeklong Endurance also on Clothes, Pets, Cabinets, Friends & Foes. thinking about this question if No5 and Calèche are still relevant today we would and could gently bring the News that they have had their time but that they perhaps stay on the stage as Statues of History and Beacons of the Creativity of Humanity. the German philosopher Adorno said in his book Ästhetische Theorie (1970) that 'All Big Art Works are Waiting'. waiting to behold their presence, meaning, place, irreplaceable validity. and perhaps such is the case also with these Sister Perfumes.